The invention relates to starch used in the baking-industry in starch-containing fillings or toppings, such as bakery cream, Swiss cream, fruit filling, savoury or sweet pie filling, almond paste filling, choux pastry filling, pizza topping, glazes on pastry or snacks and such.
Creams, fruit- or piefillings, toppings, glazes and other fillings or toppings for use in bakery products are often thickened by the inclusion or a certain amount of starch as binder, filling or thickening agent, for example providing gel-strength, viscosity, glaze, texture or creaminess to the cream or filling.
Many factors influence a decision to apply a particular ingredient or additive in a bakery product. These may include functional properties, cost or, perhaps most importantly, the regional preference for taste, mouth feel and texture. Moreover many different processing technologies are used in the baking industry also affecting the properties of the bakery product.
Starches are widely applied in fruit fillings, creams, other fillings, topics and glazes often in conjunction with hydrocolloids such as alginates, pectin, gelatin and others. In cold prepared fruit fillings, a starch should provide clarity, rapid viscosity built-up and a smooth shiny appearance. If a pulpy, more fruity appearance is required this can be achieved by applying coarser products. In cook up preparations the clarity and shininess are of importance as well and a partial pectin replacement is sometimes possible.
In bakery creams, starches should impart high viscosity, and a creamy sensation in the mouth as well as give a creamy and shiny appearance. For almond paste fillings, coarsely ground instant starch derivatives are often applied. And for savory fillings such as in pizza toppings a wide range of derivatives is known.
In all these applications the filling or topping should have a certain resistance towards the baking process. For instance, if a bakery cream looses its viscosity during the baking the cream simply runs out of the product giving the product an unpalatable appearance.
Often, in a bakery cream, apart from starch derivatives, other hydrocolloids, in particular alginates, are applied for the gelling properties. The baking stability of a cream may be improved by applying an alginate with a higher temperature resistance. However, this leads to products with a less desirable texture, often being somewhat foamy or sometimes being even brittle after baking, therefore, preferably alginates or other heat-stable hydrocolloids are used sparingly as additives to a bakery product.
Today's industry becomes increasingly demanding of derivatives used in bakery products with respect to baking stability, and acid- and shear stability. Modern bakeries work with high temperatures, e.g. 30 minutes baking at 200° C. is not uncommon, still the cream, topping, glazing or filling should not run out. In general, waxy corn starches and derivatives thereof are used in bakery products, since these tend to have a somewhat higher baking stability than (derivatives from) common potato search or common corn starch, which are commonly used in the food industry, despite the fact that corn starches in general are less viscous and thus need to be applied-in higher dose, and often have a prominent, not always appreciated taste, which is an additional disadvantage over potato starch. Furthermore, even waxy corn (maize) starch looses its stability, gel-strength or viscosity under most of today's baking conditions, demonstrating that heat-stable starches are needed.